Letter

CO-3075 MacLeish, Archibald, Library of Congress. [Carta] 1941 Aug. 22, Washington, D.C. [para] Candido Portinari, Washington, D.C. [inglês] [datilografado] My dear Senhor Portinari: It gave us the greatest pleasure to receive you and Senhora Portinari in the Library of Congress and to discuss with you the problems relating to the proposed mural in the Hispanic Room. We are delighted to know that you are willing to consider the execution of this work, and we are deeply grateful to the government of Brazil for its generous assistance in making it possible for you to come to this country to prepare preliminary sketches. Naturally, we do not want to stop with preliminary sketches. We are eager to have the mural in the Hispanic Room and we believe that you are the artist to do it. Because there are certain legal and financial aspects to this problem, I am taking the liberty of stating the conditions under which it will be possible for us to enter into a definite agreement with you for this mural. These are: 1. Before proceeding to the execution of the mural, the Architect of the Capitol would have to approve the preliminary sketches. 2. As soon as preliminary sketches have been approved, you would commence the painting of the mural, being paid for your work on a fellowship basis. Because the painting of the mural is a cultural and not a commercial undertaking, the fellowship honorarium would amount to $2500 for the period of work. As we have stated to you in conversation, the Library does not now have funds for this purpose, but we are energetically seeking such funds and have some hope that they can be obtained shortly if this arrangement is satisfactory to you. Faithfully yours, Archibald MacLeish The Librarian of Congress